Luke 9:51-62Look Ahead

Unless you live in the country, you may not have had a chance to see farmers working their fields. Before farmers can plant seeds, the earth must be prepared to receive the seeds. This is done by plowing the fields. A plow is a piece of farm equipment that is pulled behind a tractor, has a sharp blade, slices into the earth, and turns the weeds and sod under. The line in the soil that is made by a plow is called a furrow.

Years ago, before there were tractors, farmers used horses to pull their plows. (Show picture of horse drawn plow.) As you can see, the farmer holds long reins and walks behind the horse and the plow. In some parts of the world farmers still use horses to pull their plows and there are even plowing contests to see who can do the best job of plowing. The furrows they make must be neat and straight.

Jesus talks about plowing in the Bible. He tells people that anyone who puts a hand to the plow must not look back. He uses this as a lesson to teach us how to live a good, productive Christian life.

Can you imagine what would happen if you were trying to plow a field and you kept looking back? What would the field look like if you were plowing that way? I don’t think you would have neat, straight furrows.

In our lives, just as with plowing, we need to look ahead and stay focused on what we are doing. Our goal is to follow Jesus in the best way we can. He offers us forgiveness so we can go on with our lives and not be looking back, worrying about what has happened in the past.